


Going back to the start

by MyDarkSideWearsPink



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire & Related Fandoms, A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, POV Minor Character, Postpartum Depression, References to Depression, Short One Shot
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-11-24
Updated: 2019-11-24
Packaged: 2021-02-26 06:34:17
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 619
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21549190
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/MyDarkSideWearsPink/pseuds/MyDarkSideWearsPink
Summary: Love was never enough.
Relationships: Doran Martell/Mellario of Norvos
Kudos: 7





	Going back to the start

**Author's Note:**

> Very random OS about this minor character we don't talk enough of : Mellario of Norvos, and why she left her family, except make it modern.

One thing fairytales teach you : love can overcome anything.

Mellario of Norvos had believed in that. She'd been a joyful girl, full of life, daydreaming for a prince charming to take her away, like so many others. The difference between the other girls and herself was that Mellario's prince did actually come. Doran Martell was not a knight in shining armour like those from the songs, but he was gentle, and wise, good-looking in his own quiet way, a serious nature to soothe her exuberance - and he was hers. He wooed her with soft words and expensive gifts, ravished her heart and claimed her hand within a month. And when it was time for him to leave, she followed to the foreign land he called home. Without a single look back.

It was her dream come true. But then, slowly, so slowly she did not even notice it until it was too late, her dream turned into a nightmare.

Dorne was so different from Norvos. Too hot, too loud, too much. The musky scent of Dornish wine and strong spices floated in the air, impregnating her clothes, gripping at her throat, leaving her suffocating and gasping for air. Over the years, Doran's luxurious presents became apologies for his absences. The big, beautiful house was no palace but a golden cage where she spent her days aimlessly wandering, waiting for him to return home from the work that always seemed to come first. Surrounded by his family that never quite felt like hers, by the friends whose strong accents she couldn’t accustom to, by the servants and nurses she hired as an excuse to run away from her responsibilities, she was never alone yet had never been so lonely.

Each new beautiful baby meant a new post-partum depression. She learned to live with the feeling of failure weighing on her shoulders, pressing her into the ground with every single step. Failure as a wife, when screams replaced laughters and she slept alone in the large bed that used to be so, so warm. Failure as a mother, because somehow she could never understand the three strangers born of her womb, her own flesh and blood ; because Arianne had been a pleasant baby but for some reason she would cry whenever in her mother’s arms, because Quentyn so obviously favoured his father, because Trystane’s very first word was the name of the nurse she had abandoned him to.

Mellario watched, powerless, her husband's body weaken as the disease spread, watched her children grow distant as herself grew old and bitter.

And she couldn't tell it was all too much for her, couldn't admit how terrified she was of being a mother, couldn't explain why she felt alien to her own life, couldn't confess that she was homesick because _this_ was supposed to be her home, now. And how could anyone else understand what herself didn’t ? She was said to have it all.

So she kept it to herself, until one dreadful day it was too much, and she left Dorne just as she had arrived : without a single look back.

That's how Mellario found herself sitting in an empty flat in Norvos, years later, and understood that she was going to die just like that - alone and filled with regrets, surrounded by unsigned divorce papers and old pictures of the sons she hadn't seen in months, of the daughter she hadn't talked to in years. So, for the first time in her life, she decided to be brave. She packed a few things and booked a ticket for the first plane to Dorne.

In spite of everything, Mellario loved her family. One thing she has learned, though : love was never enough.


End file.
